Cognitive Unconscious, by John F. Kihlstrom (1987)

¶ … Cognitive Unconscious, by John F. Kihlstrom (1987) addresses the idea that many processes and mental structures that affect what happens in a person's conscious mind are actually processed in the unconscious mind. That would mean that a lot of the things people do, they are doing based on information they may be processing without realizing it (Kihlstrom, 1987). In other words, people take in information about the world around them all the time, but much of it is unconscious information they do not realize they are collecting. Even though they have not realized the collection of this information, they use the information to help them make decisions and to determine how they feel about things (Kihlstrom, 1987). There has been a great deal of past research that does indicate mental functions can be altered by information that was provided subliminally or even under hypnosis, as opposed to information the person clearly remembered acquiring (Kihlstrom, 1987).

The findings of the article suggest that there is a clear division of a person's cognitive unconscious (Kihlstrom, 1987). There are truly unconscious mental processes, and there are also those that may be either subconscious or preconscious (Kihlstrom, 1987). Because each one of these mental processes are different from one another and handled in a different way, it would be logical that a person could have something happen to them that they did not remember taking place (Kihlstrom, 1987). Even though they may not remember the event consciously, it would shape what they thought about something specific or how they acted during a specific situation. Knowing that a great deal of psychology and perception may be automated means looking at psychology differently from the way it was examined in the past, and also addressing human nature in a new way.

New Discoveries and Psychological Practice

Any time there is a new discovery in the psychological field, it must be studied in order to examine its validity (Sun, 2008). That is true for discoveries that are based on past information, and true for those that have been completely unexpected. With the article in question, the discovery opened up something completely different from the concepts that had been seen in the past. That meant a refocusing and readjusting of what people believed was accurate about psychology. No matter what is determined to be true from a psychological perspective, there will always be dissenters who do not agree (Fernald, 2008; Gazzaniga, 2010). Often, that happens because there is an argument over what "proof" actually is. Since psychology deals with the mind and much of it cannot generally be scientifically quantified, that argument over proof will remain well into the future.

New discoveries that are made do alter the psychological practice, though, because they provide food for thought (Gazzaniga, 2010; Sun, 2008). They give other researchers, writers, and psychologists information that can then be studied so that they can draw their own conclusions about the issue. Not everyone will arrive at the same conclusions, which is how different schools of thought in psychology have become popular and significant (Sun, 2008). The different ideas seen by psychologists around the world are what keep the field interesting, and how it continues to move forward so more people can get the kind of treatment they really need in order to lead better lives. The practice of psychology is not static, and new ideas and discoveries are offered up frequently (Gazzaniga, 2010). While not all of them are taken seriously, some do have the power to change the practice and the way many psychologists understand the mind and the way patients collect, store, and process information. The article provides information that has remained important into the present day.

Strengths of the Discoveries

All discoveries have strengths and weaknesses. This particular article has shown that the mind may be much stronger than psychologists had assumed before when it comes to processing information. In the past, it was generally believed that the information the brain processed and remembered was the information it used to make decisions and form ideas about events, people, and life choices. However, the Kihlstrom (1987) study indicated that was not the case, and that people actually use information they do not even remember in order to make many of these decisions. This implies that the brain is taking in much more sensory input than was previously assumed, and that the brain also knows how to process and use that information in order to make decisions. This is an important strength of the study, as it provides something that was not previously known and also something that vastly changes the way psychologists view how the mind works (Kihlstrom, 1987).

A mind that is able to process information and use it even if it is not remembered consciously opens up amazing opportunities for psychologists to find new ways to treat people. For example, someone who is struggling with a fear or phobia might be doing so because of something that happened to him or her that was only processed by the subconscious or preconscious mind, and not because of something that was processed by the actual, conscious part of the brain. In order to determine how to address the fear or phobia, a psychologist would have to find and use a technique that would allow the patient to access and remember the event that caused the problem do develop. Some studies have indicated that hypnosis is a good choice for bringing subconscious thought to the forefront (Fernald, 2008). There are other methods that can be used, as well, but determining what is in a person's subconscious mind is not always easy, even for a trained professional.

Weaknesses of the Discoveries